Cleveland Indians: Looking at the 2019 schedule release

The Cleveland Indians still have work to do in 2018 and need to stay focused on the task at hand. But that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the 2019 schedule.

We’re in peak baseball season as the Cleveland Indians are in the midst of a huge showdown with the Boston Red Sox. But on Wednesday afternoon the MLB released their 2019 schedule. There are quite a few things to note as we take a look at this schedule. First of all, we don’t know how half of the rosters will look for some times. We can; however, make assumptions on how good we think some of these teams will be based on their 2018 performances.

The first thing to note is that, for the third straight season, the Indians will open things up on the road. Their Opening Week takes place in Minnesota before returning home immediately after to take on the White Sox. The home opener against the Sox takes place on a *squints eyes* Monday? Gross. The Indians will actually face all of their division foes within the first two weeks of the season.

A disappointing part of this schedule is that the Indians will have to take three separate trips to the west coast. Previously, the Indians were able to get those games out of the way in one or two trips. The Ohio Cup games will be played on a Tuesday and Wednesday in Cleveland, but on a Saturday and Sunday in Cincinnati. That means the team will get a rare Friday off in the middle of the season.

Based on how teams are looking right now, the Indians don’t really have a slew of difficult games as they’ve had this year. The All-Star break will be July 8th-11th in Cleveland. The Tribe will come out that break with a 10-game home-stand against three division foes.

The team will have some interesting games to close out the season. With how the White Sox farm system looks, they could be one of the more competitive teams in the AL Central next season. The Indians close out division play with a final road trip taking them to Chicago and then to Washington D.C. The team will play all of the NL East and it seems out that they close out the year with inter-league play. In fact, two of their last series’ will be inter-league games.

Clearly there is a lot to digest here, but it seems like the schedule release raises a lot of eyebrows…. and questions. But I suppose it must be hard to coordinate 162 games for 30 teams. Regardless, it’s always exciting to think about the future, but right now the Indians have a job to finish in 2018.